$7050 enough for Orlando? (6 people)

[morcoccansunset]

Hi all,

Heading to Orlando in October as a family of 6.

Ages are 28,30,10,2,1 and 80.

The 80 year old wants to stay at the hotel only and occasionally wants to go shopping.

The kids and two adults will go to Disney and then the adults will go to universal alone (in the evenings)

I've got $7050 for food and shopping for the two weeks. We don't want to go mad and will probably share meals with the kids as the potions are bigger.

Just a bit conscious of running out of money.

Thanks

Do you already have your Disney tickets?

Yes everything else is paid for - this is purely spends.

Will you need to pay for parking at the parks and are you planning to eat all 3 meals a day out? Are you staying villa or hotel?

We're staying at a hotel but it has a fridge and microwave.

No parking, we're taking advantage of the free shuttles.

Will eat in the park and surrounding areas.

So $83 per person per day..... I guess you just have to make it work if that's what you've got to spend. Does your hotel include any meals? If breakfast is included then you probably fill up there, pick up some snacks for later and get away without having a huge lunch. There's links to menus and prices on here Orlando Area Restaurants & Dining | Walt Disney World Resort

Assuming you are going for 14 days?

it works out about $80 per day, per person. A quick service meal is around $15-20 per person - but at adult can easily share with a 1 or 2 year old, I definitely wouldn’t get them their own! Snacks are around $10. Bottles of juice are around $5, same with water.

sit down meals are more expensive.

so long as you aren’t going mad with shopping I recon you’ll be fine!

I'm using Disney's free water trick and taking some squeeze bottles to save on the drinks.

I'm thinking the 1 & 2 year old won't need too much and the 80 year old literally just wants to stay round the pool and go the the mall so I don't think they'll be spending all that much.

Hopefully it works out - I can put an extra £1500 if need be but hopefully what we have now is enough.

It will be manageable but not lavish. You might also want to budget for some taxis as the shuttle services can be really restrictive. Depending on how busy it is when you go, you might also want to budget some days for Genie+ or to buy lightning lanes.

Uber to Walmart/ other major supermarket and do a small shop. We got breakfast stuff, bottled water, and stuff to make packed lunches. (Wraps, ham/turkey/cheese, cherry tomatoes, crisps, mini carrots, ect) so much cheaper than eating out for three meals. It meant we could spend a little more on our 'main' meal each day and we didn't feel like we had to watch the pennies quite so much.

It will be tight. Avoid sit-down meals (with a tip). We did shuttle services first time, but never ever again. They were very restricted and exhausting after a day in the parks. So you might need some money for a taxi or two. But if this was a deal breaket for going I’d take the shuttles if I didn’t have small children!

We brought a cooler backpack to the parks, with fruit, crisps, ice cold water (but we had a freezer and a fridge), and small things from Walmart. That saves us the most money and the free water in the parks is just not good. You’ll have a great time anyway, just watch out with the food as it does add up quickly!

If you’re paying for this trip op that’s very generous! You will all have memories for life.

we did one day eating out for dinner and then the next day picknicking in the hotelroom with stuff from the supermarket. (Not only to cut costs but also because we are vegetarians and the options are often so limited and there is so much fastfood.) And we took snacks and waterbottles with us into the park.

The free water is gross, and warm. I know it’s a trick said everywhere but not one of our party could drink it, even with the squeezy bottle! It’s like drinking warm tap water that’s been sat out for days. The only time you can get decent free water is from the carts - but it’s a tiny cup.

a better idea is to take some decent chilly bottles - we filled them up with water and ice at the hotel in the mornings and it kept them nice and cool. We then bought some bottles of water and filled them back up later on in the day. More expensive that only using the free water, but so much nicer. If you have a buggy you could use a cool backpack and take more water with you in chilly type bottles.

Maybe they've changed it then. Last time DH and I went we were able to get large ice water cups. I guess you can't anymore.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into that instead.

We did about $4500 for 2a 2C last month, completely onsite. That includes shopping and Ubers, it wasn't all food. Also includes some expensive meals like Space 220 and a few character meals.

We tried to only do 2 meals a day, much easier to do if you have access to supermarkets to stock up on done cheap breakfast foods.

Take some small squash things to make the Florida free water more palatable!

Not all the refill stations are warm, you can get water and ice for free from the soda machines. We opted for the refillable cup in Universal.

Op you can still get water and ice for free from restaurants etc.

We spent about $4k as two adults in January but were completely unlimited in buying drinks whenever we wanted, Starbucks and a muffin for breakfast, sit down dinners every night, only eating in the parks (Disney or universal). I think you’ll be fine for that budget as you’ll be over/under on different days. Have to say though the portions weren’t big enough to share really - especially nicer restaurants were the same or smaller than standard restaurant food in the uk. I’ve seen a lot of people complain they’ve really cut serving size in the last few years.

Here is my steak for example at a nicer restaurant, compared to a burger my partner got at one of the cheaper Disney springs places.

Yes portion sizes have definitely changed, we managed to share a few meals for breakfast/lunch where we were eating lighter but would have welcomed more. I also had a couple of kids meals from QS, but my 12 year old ate adult the entire holiday, kid wasn't big enough for him.

$83 per person per day? That’s tough anywhere here, but in the Disney area that could mean a lot of nasty junk food. Fine if that’s your thing. But we usually spend around that per person per meal for a reasonable restaurant. Then there are all your non-food costs…

We came back from Florida in April having spent 2 weeks in a villa. We had roundabout figure of £3k spending money for 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kids, this was to include universal tickets at around £1200. Ate out most nights (Chick fil-a, chipotle etc) and took packed lunches into the parks. We surprisingly came back with around £600. Kids had there own spending money though and we didn't buy any souvenirs ourselves. We probably all had at least one drink and snack in the parks each day too.

If you haven't already, join the DIBB forum. Plenty of ideas on how-to make your budget work on there.

What hotel are you staying in?

83 per person per day? That’s tough anywhere here, but in the Disney area that could mean a lot of nasty junk food.

Na I disagree, Disney has a phenomenal amount of choice that isn't all junk food, we ate largely quick service and had everything from lobster rolls to bao buns. For a family of 4 we spent on average $60 per QS meal, $150 for table service (non premium) and $250 premium this includes service and tax.

So, so long as you're ensuring one of your meals is QS of which there is so much choice across Disney anyway, it's very easy for a family of 4 to eat at table service.

And the above is all on site, will be cheaper again offsite.